Cancer has become one of major diseases which are increasingly common and threaten human life and the quality of life, and tumor has risen to No. 2 “killer” in the world after cardiovascular disease, but the lesions and metastasis of cancer cells as well as mechanism of action of drugs on cancer cells are still not clear. Now the treatment of cancer is still largely chemotherapy based on antitumor agent, but chemical drugs have toxic side effects, multi-drug resistance and other issues. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors acting on related tumor cells can enhance tumor cell destruction and reduce the adverse effects on normal tissue cells and so on. These drugs have non-cytotoxicity, targeting, regulation and cell stabilizing effects, its toxicity and clinical manifestations are very different from commonly used cytotoxic drugs, there will be better effects when combined with conventional chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
Resveratrol is a natural polyphenolic compound, mainly from the rhizome extract of Polygonum cuspidatum, with a variety of biological effects, including the neuroprotective effect, cardiovascular protective effect, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor effects, etc., which especially has important clinical value in inhibition of liver cancer, stomach cancer, leukemia, cervical cancer, esophageal cancer and other cancers. Resveratrol exhibits inhibition in the onset, promotion and development phases of cancer, making it apply to the field of chemoprevention and therapy of cancer.
Curcumin, extracted from rhizome of the ginger family plant turmeric, curcuma zedoaria, is an important active ingredient with strong pharmacological activity and broad indications, which has a variety of pharmacological effects including anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anti-angiogenic, anti-mutagenic, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-oxidant and neuroprotectioneffects. The anti-tumor effect of curcumin includes in vitro growth inhibition and induction of apoptosis on a variety of tumor cells, and in vivo inhibition of tumorigenesis, but the properties of curcumin, e.g. low in vivo activity, little in vivo absorption less, fast metabolism and low bioavailability, greatly limit its application.